The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-03-26

CHAT CONCERNING THE ANCIENT
ART OF ONYCHOMANCY.

Yellow specks ForetelI Approaching
Trouble, Black Ones Mean Danger and
Red a Warning-Indications of Good
Fortune-A Curious Belief
in these days of chirognomy and chiro-
NANCY and all the other ologies and ancies
relating to peoples hands and heads and
noses and ears, it is surprising that no one
has as yet revived the Old art of Onycho-
NANCY" said SoSh Side physician the
other day to a reporter.
'sWhat is onychomancy? Well, it is the
art of divinatiOn by the nails, and was
much practiced by some of our many times
great-grandfathers / think in the Eigh-
teenth century. The most learned and
distinguished of onychomancists was Je-
rome Cardan, who was considered as great
an oracle in his day as MIR. Heron-Allen is
at present, though Cardan never made
such practical use of his reputation as the
Wideawake Englishmen has done. He
was a languid, blaSe Partisan, always in
venting some new method for making life
Observation-Disclosures, by the way, whose
only merit would seem to be originality.
One of his ideas was that govt ought to
be considered not as a calamity to be got
ten rid of, but as blessing to be cult
waited a view with which some folks aSSur-
eddy would not sympathize.
OUTLINES OF TIE ART.
81 suppose Monster Cardan found that
even such an original amusement as Gull
tivating the govt palled occasionally, and
found relief in Onychomancy. He devoted
great deal of time to the art anqf FhefGsaitlle
proud possessor of extraordinary large
nails-nails so magnificent in volume and
shape that he counted them as 'one of To
four eminent gifts bestowed on him in or
der that he might be distinguished from
the rest of mankind By means of these
nails he is said to have fOretold his future
almost exactly, finding it traced out upon
them as plainly as in map. For in
stance, Omens of i'll presented themselves
in the form of livid or black marks on the
nail of the forefinger, while marks per
fectly white appearing in the same place
were prognostics of coming good fortune.
Specks on the thumb nail meant APP
preaching honors, and riches were herald
ed on the nail Of the index finger. The
Gze, color and precise location of the diff
ferent specks were all matters of the
greatest Importance.
''Cardan was by no means the only ony-
chOmancst. He had u great many fol-
lowers and some predecessors. The out
lines of their doctrine are summarized by
Collin de Plancy in the 'Dictionaire Infer
nal Yeilowish speclzs on the nails fore
tell approaching trouble; black ones mean
danger; red speSzs, which are very I'M
common, give warning that some one has
evil designs against us; pure white specks
are most to be desired, as they are the
fOrerunnerS of good fortune When these
signs appear at the bottom of the nails,
the accomplishment of their prophecies is
remote, but as the nails grow and the
marks approximate the tip of the fingers
speedy fuifllment may be expected of the
unguicular Vaccinations
CURIOUS BELIEF.
Odd you know, - he continued; ''that
the Jews held some extraordinary opinions
about nails? They used to believe that,
before the fall, the bodies of our first pa
rents were perfectly transparent and that
of these lucid envelopes of the soul our
nails were the sole surviving remains.
Curious belief, wasn't it? You wouldn't
care to be SO exquisitely transparent your
self? Neither should l.
The long nail craze is growing more
and more fashionable, isn't it? / notice
some OF my patients wear regular claws,
ana the more fashionable the woman the
LONGER and more pointed her nails L sup
pose it is founded On the Chinese idea that
long nails are indications of gentiIity,
since they are inconsistent with any me-
chGnicaI employment or such vulgar
pursuit as working for ones bread. I've
reod that in Nubia the long finger nail is
cor dered an indisputable proof of good
birth and high rank; so much SO that the
aspiring Nubian, who wishes to get into
soc ety and belong TO the upper ten thou
san, constantly exposes his or her finger
ur TO cedar fires, process which insures
the expansion of the nail It seems to me
tina we are fast descending, or ascending,
as sou choose to call it, to the Nubian
steaddrd, since length of nail really seems
70 be taken as criterion of good breed
ing.
Have you my permission to use the in
formation about anychomancy? Oh, by
ali means. My daughters heard me talk
ing about it the other day, and since then
tney have been hard at work studying up
all the books they can find upon the sub
Ject: To tell the truth, | purposely awak-
eHed their interest in it, with the idea that
d httle talk about red specks' and BLACK
speeks' would be relief from the eternal
chatter upon head lines and heart lines
ana what not which ! have been COM
PEELED to listen to for the LAST six months -